Chapter 5 - THE CRAZY WIFE
Claire left her own birthday party without saying goodbye.
Julian followed her into the lobby.
“Where are you going?”
“Home.”
“Not alone.”
She turned.
“You lost the right to care where I go about twelve years ago.”
Julian lowered his voice.
“This is getting out of control.”
Claire stared at him.
“You filed papers claiming I’m mentally incompetent.”
His expression flickered.
Only once.
Enough.
“So it’s true.”
“It’s temporary.”
Claire actually laughed.
“Temporary insanity?”
“A protective petition.”
“Against your wife?”
“Against decisions you’ve been making.”
“What decisions?”
“You’ve been stressed.”
“I run a company.”
“You haven’t been sleeping.”
“My husband has apparently been sleeping enough for both of us.”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
“You’re proving my point.”
There it was.
The trap.
If Claire screamed, she was unstable.
If she cried, she was emotional.
If she fought, she was aggressive.
Fourteen years of knowing her weaknesses had taught Julian exactly which buttons to press.
So Claire smiled.
“Good night, Julian.”
She walked away.
Maya met her forty minutes later at a twenty-four-hour diner near Lake Shore Drive.
Claire had barely sat down when Maya placed a thick stack of printed records on the table.
“This is bad.”
“How bad?”
“Someone has spent months building a paper trail.”
Claire flipped through pages.
Statements from a physician she barely knew.
Notes claiming memory lapses.
Reports of erratic behavior.
One alleged incident said Claire had threatened an employee.
“That never happened.”
“I know.”
“Who signed this?”
Maya pointed.
Claire stopped.
Her father.
Robert Bennett had submitted a declaration stating that his daughter had shown “significant personality changes and impaired judgment.”
Claire stared at the page.
“He saw me last weekend.”
“I know.”
“We had brunch.”
Maya leaned forward.
“They need a judge to grant control. They don’t have it yet.”
“When?”
“The hearing was scheduled fast.”
“How fast?”
“Friday.”
Two days.
Claire sat back.
“They want me declared incompetent before the investor deal closes.”
“Probably.”
“And then Julian gets control of my shares.”
“If the proxy documents survive review.”
“They’re forged.”
“Yes.”
Claire looked through the pages again.
Then noticed a medical letterhead.
Dr. Samuel Klein.
Her mother’s physician.
Claire remembered him visiting the Bennett house three months earlier.
Diane had said he was checking Robert’s blood pressure.
But there were notes describing Claire.
Her mood.
Her speech.
Her drinking.
Claire rarely drank.
“They were watching me.”
Maya nodded.
“Looks that way.”
Claire’s eyes burned.
“Why?”
“For the company?”
“No.”
Claire shook her head.
“Julian could have divorced me years ago. Brooke could have exposed the affair. Dad could have asked for my shares. Why spend twelve years building this?”
Maya was quiet.
Then she pulled out one more record.
“We found where the $6.4 million loan went.”
Claire read the recipient.
Mercer Strategic Holdings LLC.
“What is that?”
“A company Julian formed eighteen months ago.”
“For what?”
“That’s what we need to find out.”
Maya slid another page toward her.
“There have been seven transfers.”
Claire scanned the amounts.
Two hundred thousand.
Six hundred thousand.
Nine hundred thousand.
Then one name appeared repeatedly as an authorized recipient.
Brooke Bennett.
Claire stopped.
Her sister hadn’t just slept with her husband.
She had been taking money with him.
Maya leaned back.
“Claire, I need you to think carefully.”
“About what?”
“Who else had access to your signatures, passwords, tax records, medical insurance and corporate documents?”
Claire thought about it.
Then suddenly remembered the locked filing cabinet in her father’s home office.
Every family legal document since childhood was stored there.
Birth certificates.
Trust agreements.
Insurance records.
Claire looked up.
“My parents.”
Maya nodded grimly.
At that exact moment Claire’s phone lit up.
DAD CALLING.
She answered.
Robert didn’t sound angry anymore.
He sounded afraid.
“Claire, don’t go home.”
She sat up.
“Why?”
“Julian just left the hotel.”
“So?”
“He knows you copied the files.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
“How?”
“I told him.”
Claire stood.
“You did what?”
“I was trying to calm him down.”
“Where is he going?”
Robert hesitated.
Then Claire heard it.
A doorbell notification on her phone.
Her home security camera.
Someone was standing on her front porch.
Julian.
May you like
And he wasn’t alone.
A locksmith stood beside him.
